


Pining Insanity

by sasuhina_gal



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Pining Lance (Voltron), established sheith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 17:37:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13058859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sasuhina_gal/pseuds/sasuhina_gal
Summary: Lance knows he should try to forget his crush on Keith and Shiro, mostly because the two are already dating. But every time they invite him out, he somehow always agrees. Why does it feel like it's a bit different than hanging out though?





	Pining Insanity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [after-midnightmunchies](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=after-midnightmunchies).



“Hunk, open the door.” Lance whined from the other side of the door of the Samoan’s dorm room.

The door swung open, Hunk looking extremely concerned, that concern growing when Lance dropped his head against Hunk’s chest.

“Lance, what’s wrong?”

“They were kissing.” Lance moaned.

“Who? Oh, wait. You mean.” Lance nodded, sounding wounded. “There, there. It’s ok. Come on.”

Hunk led Lance into his room and let him drop on his bed. Hunk sat on the bed and patted Lance on the back, trying to let him feel better.

“Why can’t I forget it? This is so…uggg!” Lance moaned.

“Because love doesn’t leave when you want it to. So you saw Keith and Shiro kiss huh?” Hunk said.

“Yeah. I know it shouldn’t be a surprise. I’m Keith’s roommate and I’ve been friends with them since I worked on the project with them. I shouldn’t have fallen for them, but I did. What is wrong with me?”

It’s something Lance had been going through for the past couple months. Before the two even started dating, Lance had a crush on them both but when they got together, he tried forgetting it. And failed. Hanging out with them felt like torture sometimes and while he wanted to push away, he didn’t. They meant too much to him to try and forget them.

“Nothing is wrong with you. You heart just decided it wanted something you can’t have, though unless their poly, which I do remember them being.”

“Don’t start Hunk. There is no way it’s gonna happen.” Lance said, no matter how much he wished it. He took a big breath and pushed himself up. “I can do this, I can forget these feelings and I’ll be fine.”

“Yes you will.” Hunk said feelingly, patting Lance’s shoulders. “How about we do an indoor spa night? Maybe we can pull Allura away from all the clubs she’s in.”

“Oh, I can’t.” Lance said, looking a bit guilty. “I promised Shiro and Keith I’d go to the movies with them.”

“Movies? With them? On a Friday? Like, obvious date night?”

“They invited me. And they asked which movie I wanted to see. If they plan on making out the whole time, at least I’ll be focused on a movie I want to see and not them.”

“Uhhh,” Hunk seemed confused but nodded anyway. “Ok, sure I guess. Tell me how it goes right?”

The movie was fine. Lance enjoyed it and the small part that Lance wanted to show in a corner enjoyed how Keith and Shiro made him sit in between them. They had been on the level above the middle walkway, so Lance had propped his feet up on the railing. Keith had done the same, Shiro whispering to them that they’d get in trouble, but Keith made his feet rest in a way that he was leaning more on Lance.

Being a cuddler, Lance was fine, though he had been wondering why Keith was cuddling against him. Keith wasn’t much for physical contact unless he started it but even then, never to the point of cuddling. Lance decided to ignore that and focus on the movie. It did make him think though. This wasn’t the first time he joined them in an outing that could have been a date for them.

_‘It can’t be that odd. We’re really close friends and Allura and Hunk are busy most of the time.’_

* * *

 

Lance was walking to his dorm, trying to text Keith. Keith had offered to take him to the mall and after the day he had, Lance needed retail therapy. Plus, it would give him a chance to get Allura a pick me up present from the Lush store with all the work she was doing with the groups she was in and the work she was putting on herself.

“Get it loser, we’re going shopping.”

At the sound of iconic lines, he turned to see Keith pulling up to where Lance was standing.

“Did you just Regina George me? _You_?” Lance had never felt more in love-No, no, nope. Not love, because Keith had a boyfriend and wouldn’t be interested in Lance McClain, nope, no way.

“Yes, and I hated every minute of it.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Lance asked, stepping closer to Keith’s open window.

“I was coming to invite you out to the mall and you look like you’ve had a day. Come on, I’ll even get you a Cinnabun.” Keith said the magic words. Lance was quick to get into the passenger seat. “You and your gigantic sweet tooth.” Keith said, laughing to himself.

“Less jokes and more driving. We’re getting Cinnabun first.”

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the mall and Keith followed Lance as he dashed right over to where Cinnabun was held. He looked like a kid in a candy store at the sight of the iced rolls.

“Which one do you want?” Keith asked, leaning close to him, looking over his shoulder.

Lance pointed to one in the corner that looked like it was completely covered in icing. “That one.”

“How do you not get cavities?” Keith asked, while getting the worker’s attention.

“I take perfect care of my teeth, thank you very much. My dentist still can’t believe I’ve never got a cavity before.” Lance boasted, not seeming to pay a whole lot of attention to his dessert being taken and put into a box until it was handed to Keith, who paid and handed the desert to Lance. “I could have paid.”

“I don’t mind. Come on.”

Lance watched Keith walking away. It had been weird, all the times he hung out with Shiro, Keith or both, it felt different for some reason. Lance was sure that it was because he had crushes on them but it was different than that.

Just the other day, Lance had been missing his cat, and Shiro surprised him by driving him to the closest cat café, which was an hour away, even buying Lance a cat eared beanie he had been looking at when they got in there. Shiro was allergic to long haired cats but he didn’t complain a bit when all the long haired cats surrounded Lance, one blacked haired cat even crawled up into Shiro’s lap.

Even now, Keith letting Lance drag him around, and feeding him pieces of his Cinnabun while he carried his shopping bags after Lance refused Keith’s help carrying them, it felt very different. Lance didn’t know why, but these outings had been feeling a bit more like dates.

Which couldn’t be right, because Keith and Shiro didn’t like Lance like that.

Right?

* * *

 

Lance wasn’t sure how much more of this he could handle. For the past month, maybe more, Keith and Shiro had been acting flirtatious to Lance. Lance could say with full confidence that while he could let out pickup lines to any person who caught his fancy, getting them in return, he became a complete mess. It wasn’t blatant flirting, just little things. Compliments on his appearances, giving him praise when he did something good, doing small little things for him.

“I think they know.” Lance was telling Hunk.

They were in Lance’s dorm for a change. Lance knew Keith would have a long lab at the time, so he didn’t have to worry about Keith coming back when Lance was gushing about him and his boyfriend.

“What makes you think that?” Hunk asked, gently rubbing Lance back. His own back was against the wall the bed was pushed against, Lance laying on his stomach in front of him.

“They’re being…I don’t know, boyfriend-y? I mean I like it but it’s just weird. It’s like they know how I feel and they’re trying to get me to admit it, like try to kiss them or something.”

“Lance, come on. This is Keith and Shiro, they wouldn’t do something like that to trip you up or anything. Maybe they’re just being nice or-”

“Hunk, if you try to say that they might like me, I’m kicking you out. There isn’t a chance in hell that they’d feel that way for me.”

Hunk frowned at his friend’s self-deprecating comment. He really wished Lance had the confidence he could fake. Maybe then he’d realise just how important he was.

“Fine,” he said begrudgingly, “what are you going to do about it then?”

“I don’t know, pretend it doesn’t exist and hope like hell I’m just seeing things?”

Lance phone dinged with a notification and Lance leaned over to grab it from his bedside table.

“Don’t drop it again.” Hunk warned. He was honestly surprised Lance hadn’t cracked his phone’s screen the amount of time’s it’s slipped out of his hands. He was really gonna have to bug him about getting a pop socket for it.

It got safely into Lance’s hands and onto the bed so he could open and scroll through it. He pouted at the message. “Ugg, reminder to get tickets to the Royal Ballet’s film of Alice in Wonderland.”

“I’m really sorry I can’t take you.” Hunk apologized. His girlfriend went to the same school their friend Pidge attended and he was planning on driving up to go see her. Lance was determined to go and see the ballet, but so far he couldn’t find a ride.

“It’s fine. I mean the tickets are expensive anyway. But I really want to see it, I know they have the DVD of the first one they did, but the Alice that’s playing is a fav of mine from the company. And the White Rabbit. Besides, I think you’d get tired of me gushing about ballet.”

“I swear, if your parents could have afforded to send you and your sisters to ballet classes, you’d still be doing it wouldn’t you?”

“Hell yeah,” Lance said, turning on his back. “But just watching it is enough. It’s so worth it to see the beautiful dancing and the costumes. God, whoever could go with me will think I’m so weird for being so overly excited for this. I just really, god Hunk. I really want to go. Even if I have to spend my entire pay check on the ticket, I want to go.”

The door swung open and Keith walked in, looking tired.

“You’re back early. I thought you had lab?” Lance asked, watching Keith drop his bag on the end of his bed and drop down on it.

“Fire alarm went off because in another lab, someone set something on fire, so we have to reschedule. I’m really tired.” He answered, running his hands through his hair.

“You sleep. I can go to Hunk’s room.” Lance said.

“Oh, uh I actually need to start on an essay. Sorry.” Lance felt like Hunk really wasn’t. Something told him Hunk was trying to be sly and keep Lance and Keith in the same room.

Hunk gave him a look as he headed out the door, while Keith flopped down on his bed looking close to sleep. Lance sighed; Hunk really knew how to push it.

“Come on Keith, at least take you shoes off.” He instructed, approaching the half asleep young man. He unzipped Keith’s boots and pulled them off for him, tugging at the blanket Keith was on top of. Keith ached enough for Lance to pull it from under him and cover him. “Good?”

Keith hummed, already slipping off into dreamland. Lance knew he should just go back to his side of the room and do something, but it wasn’t often he got to see Keith asleep. Lance usually passed out first or Keith would be in Shiro’s room. Lance wanted that, to fall asleep next to them. Lance was a hug fan of cuddles piles and napping with other people and he had to be honest, both Keith and Shiro were the perfect cuddling partners, well except for Hunk. It was Hunk, nothing could beat him.

Lance wanted the chance to snuggle close with them, happy and safe in their arms, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t theirs and they weren’t his. They couldn’t be, why would they want him?

* * *

 

Lance was curled up against the door of Hunk’s bedroom, waiting for him to come back. He needed help. He heard voiced and looked up to see Hunk and Allura turning the corner.

“Lance? Hello, how are you? I haven’t seen you for a while.” Allura greeted. She wasn’t wrong, her workload and other obligations had made her too busy to hang out with him and Hunk. He guessed she was finally free if she could help Hunk bake, judging from the baking items in their hands. He could smell the lemon berry cake from where he was sitting.

“You ok? You look kinda, I don’t know, stunned I guess? What’s wrong?” Hunk asked.

“Can you open the door? I need to sit down.”

Hunk let them all in, resting the cake on his desk and focused on putting his stuff away, while Allura sat next to Lance on Hunk’s bed. Lance pulled something out of his bag and handed it to Allura.

“These are tickets to the screening of the Alice in Wonderland performance. Lance you got tickets? That’s amazing. But, there are three?”

Lance wasn’t even looking at Allura, more interested in his sleeves. “That’s because I didn’t buy them. Shiro and Keith got them for me, as a date. Because apparently, I’ve been their boyfriend and I didn’t even know.”

“Wait, what?” Hunk abandoned putting away his baking items and sat down next to Lance. “What do you mean?”

“You know how I’ve been complaining about how they’re really extra, flirty and I was sure they knew and were trying to get me to admit it? I confronted them about it after they gave me the tickets and they looked so confused. They were under the impression that I agreed to date them like 2 months ago. Except, you know how I feel about them. If they asked me to date them I’d be screaming it from the rooftops. So how, ugg, how did they come to that conclusion? Were they joking and just messing with me? Did it actually happen and I somehow forgot? What?”

“Ok, first calm down. I’m the only one who gets panicky here. And second, I know it’s not something you want to hear, cause I know it’ll confuse you, but I don’t think they’d trick you. You know those two, they’d never to that to you.” Hunk said

“That should make me feel better, but I just feel confused. How, when did this happen? Not only that, after they told me that and just looked at me, like they couldn’t understand why I didn’t know this, I just took off. Now they’ll never like me.” Lance moaned, hiding his face in his hands.

“Lance, come on. They did so much for you. They genuinely like you, I know it.” Allura tried comforting, but Lance just continued making wounded noises in his hands. “I will call Shiro and find out what happened ok? I think they also deserve an explanation.”

“No! You can’t call him please. I don’t want them…I can’t…”

“Lance, you deserve an explanation as to what happened, why did they even think this and they deserve to know what you’ve been going through. Hunk, stay with him.” Allura got up, already dialling a number.

“Hunk.” Lance whined, but Hunk just rubbed Lance’s back, trying to be the smallest amount comforting as he could be, while wondering if he was going to have to throw punches. “What if it was all a mistake? How am I going to face them? I room with Keith!”

“You can room in here. Rolo is never here so he won’t mind.” Hunk was quick to say. Lance let out another wounded noise and dropped to hide his face in Hunk’s lap.

“Ok, they’re coming here.” Allura said after getting off the phone.

“Wh-Here?”

“Yes here. Lance needs a place where he feels like he has control and he can’t do that at his or Shiro’s room, so he can do it here. Now, Lance I know you haven’t really calmed down much so do you want us to stay here when they come or do you want to face them yourself?”

“I don’t know. Are they really coming here?”

“If they don’t want me to go start yelling at them without getting the whole story, yes. Don’t choose now. Shiro has to collect tests from the class that he’s TAing so once he’s done with that, they’ll be right over. Now Lance, deep breaths please.”

“Do you want a slice of the lemon berry cake? I was gonna give you half anyway since Shay likes it more than Pidge so I knew she wouldn’t try to devour it when Shay turned her back.” Hunk asked

“Please.”

Lance had almost devoured his half when someone knocked on the door. He was more put together than he had been when he first entered the room.

“Do you want us to stay?” Allura asked, getting up.

“Can you stay outside the door?”

“Of course.” She opened the door where both Shiro and Keith looked uncomfortable and apologetic. “We’ll be outside the door, so don’t give me a reason to storm back in here, got it?”

“Yes princess.” Shiro answered

“Excellent. Hunk, come on.”

Hunk gave Lance shoulder another pat on the shoulder and followed Allura out the door, the low click closing Lance in with the two guys he still felt in love with, even with all the confusion. The quiet felt so awkward though. Lance wasn’t used to this, with them silence didn’t feel weird or suffocating. Somehow it always felt fine, even during the times Lance felt like he had to hold a much tighter grip on his feelings.

“Lance, um…” Shiro started. Shiro never seemed unsure of himself like he did standing in front of Lance. “Allura told us that, you never knew that we asked you out.”

“Trust me if I did, I would know.”

“I see. Can we tell you when we asked you out, and see if you remember? Maybe we weren’t as clear as we thought.”

How would he not remember? He was more than certain that the day Shiro and Keith ever asked him, he would never forget. Nothing could make him forget it.

“Remember the Harry Potter dance a few months ago?” Keith asked.

Dance? Oh the family and friends weekend dance. They had the theme of Harry Potter that weekend and he and his friends went wearing house cardigans and ties over their outfits. He remembered he switched Shiro’s Hufflepuff tie with his Ravenclaw one. Though, he was sure when he woke up still in his clothes from the night before, he was wearing a Gryffindor one.

“You slipped between us on the dance floor and were being your usual self and I think that’s when it hit us. We’ve liked you for a while and we had been wondering we were ready to add someone else to our relationship.” Keith continued.

“The last time wasn’t the best. Keith and I almost completely lost each other, so we’ve been really careful in this, that decision. But I don’t know, just watching you dance between us both, it kinda clicked for us that we wanted to ask you out.”

Lance remembered that. He remembered the small burst of courage that made him slid between the two of them, keeping their attention on him. He was quick to disappear once embarrassment caught up with him.

“We talked it over once more, to make sure we were both in agreement and then went to look for you. You were on one of the couches, resting I guess. You seemed a bit tired but you answering clearly so…”

That he didn’t remember. After he danced, he went over to the refreshment table and…

“This is gonna sound strange, but was I drinking anything when you came over?”

The two black haired guys look at each other confused at the question but Keith answered anyway. “Um, I think you had a cup. Why?”

The two stared at Lance as he burst into an entire string of curse words and muffled screams. They could hear something banging just outside the door. Keith decided to check on the two outside while Shiro kneeled in front of Lance.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Lance didn’t say anything except moan and groan even more, hiding his face in his hands. “Lance, please tell me what’s wrong. If we did something wrong, we want to know.”

“I was drunk. I’m a sleepy drunk.”

“What? Drunk? Lance, I swear we didn’t do anything except ask you out.”

“I know. I know you wouldn’t. I know you guys would never do that. I just…uggg!”

“Lance doesn’t remember anything once he’s drunk. He might say or do anything but he has no memory of it. Whether it’s because he’s tired or blacked out, well…” Allura filled in for Lance.

“So when we asked Lance out and if he’d wanted to be our boyfriend and he said yes…?” Keith started.

“Lance had no clue what he agreed to the next day. But hey, at least the mystery of the necktie is solved. It must have been Keith’s.” Hunk said

“Um, yeah, you said, ‘I’ll be your boyfriend, but I want Keith’s tie.’ Then after you got it, you said, ‘I never thought you would ever be interested in me’.” Keith explained.

Lance sounded like a wounded animal making Shiro hit Keith in the leg.

“Obviously there has been a lot of miscommunication. Lance, we’re really sorry we’ve cause you all this trouble. We never meant for you to feel confused or anything. We should have made sure to check with you the next day instead of just assuming.”

“I need time to process everything.” Lance said, sounding out of breath.

“Of course. We can go. We are sorry Lance. Trust me, we never wanted a relationship with you to start out so misleading.”

Lance appreciated how understanding they were being. Now he had to figure out just what he was gonna do now.

* * *

 

Lance thought long and hard. He still wanted to be with Keith and Shiro. While he wasn’t in the know about being their boyfriend, they still treated him so well. He had Allura act like a bridge between them and according to what she heard from them, the reason they hadn’t moved for more romantic moves was because they knew Lance liked to move slow with his relationships. He wanted the first kisses to be special and they wanted to give Lance the kiss he wished for.

“They really care about you. Poor Shiro looks like he did something horrible. I think he think he disrespected you assuming you were all going out without checking with you.”

“I want to give it a real chance with them. I just don’t know if it should approach them or wait for them. What if they lose interest?”

“Lance, trust me. They aren’t losing interest. They just don’t want to rush you.” He knew she was right. Didn’t mean he still didn’t worry.

He was heading back to his room. Rolo got into a fight with his own girlfriend and decided to take advantage of the empty room that Hunk left after his classes. He knew Shiro had made Keith room with him to give Lance space, so he was sure the space to relax and try and decompress. However he was surprised at the sight of Shiro and Keith leaning against the wall to his door. Why Keith was waiting outside made no sense, he never forgot his keys. Lance was guilty of that more than he cared to admit. He also noticed a big bouquet of tulips in Shiro’s hand. Tulips were his mom’s favourite flower and he loved the sight of them.

“Lance.”

“Hey guys.”

Shiro handed him bouquet of flowers. “These are for you. We wanted to ask you something, if you’re willing to hear us out?”

“Uh, yeah?” What was going on?

“Keith and I have feelings for you and we’ve talked about it a lot and we want you to be with us, if you wanted.”

“Ok?” why were they telling him this? He knew this already. Wait, hang on. Where they? Could they be? Were they asking him out, like it was the first time, because he had been in a drunken mind space he didn’t remember the first?

“At the Harry Potter dance, it kinda hit us how much we wanted to be with you. And we’re really sorry it took us so long to come and ask you this. I don’t think I could take waiting anymore. We want to be with you. Like take you to the movies.”

“Feed you Cinnabuns when you’re focused on shopping.” Keith said, making Lance smile.

“Take you to a cat café when you’re missing your own cat.”

Their dates, or what had been dates without Lance’s knowledge. They wanted to do that stuff all over again, with him with the knowledge of knowing now.

“We want you to be our boyfriend Lance, and possibly go out with us this weekend?” Keith asked

“Where to?”

“Well, I heard that you really wanted to go see the screening of the Royal Ballet’s Alice in Wonderland, so we got tickets.” Keith answered, pulling out three familiar tickets from his back pocket. “And before you ask, these aren’t the one we gave you. We got other copies from the theatre. We wanted to do this from scratch.”

Ooh, how could Lance say no? He didn’t think anyone would ever go through such effort. His past relationships didn’t.

“Sure. I would love to.” Before he lost his nerve, he did what he had been dying to do forever and quickly pressed kisses to their cheeks. He was glad to see they were turning about as red as he felt. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

“Oh well, it’s taken everything to keep Keith from shoving you in a corner and kissing the daylights out of you, so we understand.” Shiro explained

“You only say that because once I start, you’ll want to join in.” Keith was quick to snap back.

Lance stifled his giggles, watching his boyfriends argue in front of him. Boyfriends, Lance could get used to that word very quickly.


End file.
